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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23702293">I need a minute longer</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSoggySchuyler4/pseuds/TheSoggySchuyler4'>TheSoggySchuyler4</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Mentioned Characters</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 19:14:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>890</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23702293</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSoggySchuyler4/pseuds/TheSoggySchuyler4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Daisy attempts to deal with Fitz's betrayal in season 5 (You know which one)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jemma Simmons &amp; Skye | Daisy Johnson, Leo Fitz &amp; Skye | Daisy Johnson, Melinda May &amp; Skye | Daisy Johnson, Phil Coulson &amp; Skye | Daisy Johnson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>62</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>I need a minute longer</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The room was quiet. For once, there were no agents bustling past her, or yelling, or physical, deadly manifestations of their worst nightmares trying to kill them. It would be nice, except that the nightmares were all still trapped and screaming inside her head and she didn’t know how to get rid of those ones. May wouldn’t let her take another ICER to the head. She clenched her fists. Focused on the steady vibrations of The Lighthouse and tried to match her breathing to them.</p>
<p>After a moment, the ugly pit of anxiety and fear dissipated slightly, and she reached for her tablet, discarded at the end of her bed. She used to take such comfort in technology. The thrill of control she had found in her hacking skills had helped her survive a messy childhood. Now though, she looked at the tablet, and grubby from use, and wanted to scream as memories of the Framework invaded her mind. Shakily enlarging a map of the base, just to see the tiny names of Coulson and May talking in one of the other rooms and found herself pulled into the memory of discovering Eric’s body. The blood on the screen-</p>
<p>She let out a moan, barely a sound, and let the tablet slip from her fingers. It clattered noisily to the ground, but she made no move to retrieve it. It was so… tainted. Ruined. Like so many of the things and people that she had once loved. Like Fitz. The map was still open on the tablet screen and she could see his avatar now, pacing in his cell. She was involuntarily reminded of her own time in Quarantine, after Terrigenesis. Of how she’d been so scared, and Fitz had pulled her into a hug and told her there was nothing wrong with her. Part of her wanted to go to him, to comfort him-</p>
<p>No. No, he- he <em>hurt </em>her. She curled in on herself, away from the tablet and Fitz’s tiny avatar. It would be impossible to try to rank all of the traumas that she had faced (not dealt with- that would be an impossibility all on its own) over the years, but this one was high up there. This one, she would never recover from. It wasn’t just that Fitz had violated her; touched her without permission or consent like so many of her foster fathers that-</p>
<p>It was that she knew him. Sometimes even better than he’d known himself. Fitz had been her friend, practically a brother. She’d known before he did that he loved Jemma. She’d known about his dad long before the framework, because he’d sat with her after they’d wiped her dad’s memory and told her about him. She knew that he’d dreaded being anything like him. That he’d been horrified by even the thought. She knew, deep down in her heart, unerringly, how good and kind and pure Fitz could be, <em>should </em>be. How much he probably despised himself right now. It just- it all hurt so <em>much. </em>She’d felt everything that he’d done to her, and she was still feeling it now. The physical pain that never left, but also the emotional pain. The one that felt like she was dying. And she didn’t take that lightly.</p>
<p>After the- after, she’d slipped away from the others, too caught in her own mind- her own agony- to ask for help. There were so many more important things to deal with anyway. She just needed a minute. She’d get back to helping in a minute. It was only that the pain hadn’t faded yet, and though she knew the physical pain would, eventually, dull to a manageable ache, the daggers pressing to her heart and her mind would linger, cutting into her thoughts without a moment’s notice and leaving her a sobbing wreck on the floor. Like with Linc-</p>
<p>Jemma would want her to forgive Fitz, and she knew deep down that she should. They would expect her to. That was what Daisy did- she saw the good in people, found a way to forgive them. And she probably would give it to him, eventually. The Fitz she knew was a good man, and a trusted friend despite everything, and she still desperately wanted to believe in him. There were too few people in this world that she genuinely trusted. She couldn’t bare the agony that would come from losing another.</p>
<p>She knew herself, though. The trauma would never fade. That was undeniable, and it couldn’t be helped. However much she might want to give Fitz her forgiveness, it would be a very long time before she stopped flinching whenever he moved or tried to touch her. But she would try. She would try for Jemma, who would hate to see the people she loved so divided. She would try for May and Coulson, who would quietly mourn the loss of their innocence from those early days but would never dare question how she coped. Mostly though, she would try for Fitz. She could never hate him. However much she might want to, if she thought it might ease the pain even a little. No, she would get up again, and she would find it in herself to forgive Fitz. She just needed another minute. And then everything would be alright again.</p>
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